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Smart Grid Strategies:
Minimizing Deployment Cost and Time
How to drive down the cost of your smart
meter deployment in the next 90 days
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WHITE PAPER
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By Joe Ferrero
VP of Customer Support and Services
eMeter
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White Paper: Smart Meter Reduction Guide
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Content
Summary................................................................................................................................................................................3
Why do Smart Meter solutions take so long to deploy?...........................................................................3
Caveat Emptor! Single Source networks take the Smart out of Smart Grid................................3
Lessons Learned from the Communications Industry...............................................................................4
eMeter’s SmartStart 3-Month End-to-End Solution....................................................................................5
Time-to-market is critical ............................................................................................................................................6
A foundation for growth..............................................................................................................................................7
Advantages of SmartStart............................................................................................................................................7
Summary................................................................................................................................................................................8
©2009 eMeter Corporation. All rights reserved. eMeter is a registered trademark of eMeter Corporation. EnergyIP
is a registered trademark of eMeter Corporation. Energy Engage and SmartStart are trademarks of eMeter
Corporation. All other products and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.
©2009 eMeter Corporation.
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Summary
This paper provides a complete roadmap on how to thoroughly, yet quickly, authenticate your Smart
Metering (also known as AMI or Advanced Metering Infrastructure) decisions, take advantage of all Smart
Grid innovation and future proof your smart metering investment against costly changes introduced by
Regulators, IT vendors or Meter Providers. Furthermore, it shows how you can provide a complete feedback
loop to your consumers allowing them to actively manage their energy usage.
Why do Smart Meter solutions take so long to deploy?
Utilities around the world are evaluating, selecting, demonstrating and deploying smart metering
technology. For many, a smart meter deployment will be the largest capital project they ever undertake.
During this process, utilities face numerous challenges handling multiple smart meter technology
providers, managing complex implementation requirements, providing integration flexibility and planning
deployment meter installation logistics. As a result, many programs are
planned to take 10 years or longer.
Over that same period, utilities will fundamentally change their
relationship with their customers, offering products, services and pricing
plans that are only being imagined today. In addition, the industry will
continue undergoing a transformation through competition, consolidation,
increased inter-dependencies and greater economies of scale. Whatever
metering technology is deployed, it must be flexible. Today there are few
regulatory or industry standards for Smart Grid technology. Utilities are
looking to deploy cost effective solutions now that will adapt to the Smart
Grid of tomorrow. Procurement decisions are difficult due to the tradeoffs
between functionality, reliability, innovation and future requirements.
Utilities will
fundamentally
change their
relationship with their
customers, offering
products, services and
pricing plans that are
only being imagined
The Smart Grid will require utility IT infrastructures to be enhanced. Meter
today.
data collection and billing systems will undergo a makeover as smart
meters are rolled out. Meter readings will increase from a typical once per
month now to 30 reads per month (daily reads) to 720 reads per month
(hourly reads) to almost 2900 reads per month (15 minute interval reads). The business processes to
support the collecting, analyzing and processing of that much additional data is an often overlooked, yet
critical component, of the move to the Smart Grid.
Caveat Emptor! Single Source networks take the Smart out of Smart Grid
Solutions offered by meter providers that offer end-to-end connectivity between a meter and the utility’s
CIS system are attractive because they offer “one hand to shake” or “one tie to grab.” The solution offered is
© 2009 eMeter Corporation
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typical of new technology being introduced to an existing marketplace – it offers a closed, proprietary
system that can all be controlled by one vendor.
Solutions offered by consumer focused software companies are compelling
in their layout and design, but lack the ability to integrate with multiple
meter types or integrate to a utility’s IT infrastructure. The volume of data,
along with the business processes needed to integrate the data into the
customer care and billing applications is often beyond a consumer software
company’s core competency.
The single most
important attribute is
the ability to integrate
with multiple meter
types.
Because of all the known variables and unknown future requirements,
initial Smart Meter deployments often take calendar years rather than
calendar quarters to complete. When limited scope deployment pilots are
done, the effort is often thrown away when a utility moves to a large-scale project. Scalability, perhaps the
single most important attribute for a successful full deployment, cannot be properly tested in a pilot
deployment.
Lessons Learned from the Communications Industry
Today’s challenges in the utilities industry are broadly comparable to the communications industry over
the last 15-20 years. What was once a stable and moderate growth business, the communications industry,
particularly wireless communications, has radically transformed since 1990.
In 1990, mobile telephones were expensive, heavy, offered short battery life and functionality that was
limited to making and receiving calls. While major communications infrastructure providers such as
Motorola and Ericsson provided most cellular devices, electronic pagers still had a much larger market
share than mobile phones.
Ten years later, mobile phones were smaller and more functional, but few consumers used the advanced
features of messaging and wireless Internet that became available with the introduction of digital cellular
networks. A range of consumer electronics manufacturers including Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung started
offering phones, which contributed to the continued growth of mobile phones while traditional landline
phones, started to shrink.
In today’s marketplace, consumers use their phones for communications, messaging, organization and
entertainment. More importantly, online application stores are available to download new applications,
ringtones and other phone accessories that neither the network providers nor the device manufacturers
included with their base product. Phones have become a consumer product that attracts consumers to a
network.
© 2009 eMeter Corporation
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The key lessons learned for utility executives are:
1. The device (i.e., phone or meter) providers of today will not be the
device providers of tomorrow
2. A continuous upgrade of networking technology allows more
applications and broader consumer adoption
3. An open platform that offers consumers many applications, along
with the ability to offer a broad choice of rate plans will be a
Like the mobile phone
industry, utilities must
lay an extensible
foundation to quickly
adapt to changes and
new opportunities.
requirement of the future
eMeter’s SmartStart 3-Month End-to-End Solution
eMeter was founded by pioneers in electronic metering over nine years ago. The co-founders of CellNet
Data Systems also co-founded eMeter in part due to their frustration with the time and effort required to
deploy even a small amount of electronic meters into a utility’s infrastructure. They recognized an
opportunity that would allow their customers to quickly deploy any metering technology, integrated to
any back office infrastructure.
The result is eMeter’s EnergyIP™. EnergyIP quickly became the benchmark
in a new category of utility software: Meter Data Management (MDM).
Today, EnergyIP is the world’s leading MDM product, with the most largescale smart meter deployments in the industry.
Additionally, EnergyIP has a perfect complement in Energy Engage™, a
highly scalable web portal solution that provides consumers views
regarding energy usage, cost and carbon footprint so they can make smart
choices about energy consumption.
The key criteria for
every Smart Grid is to
be meter agnostic,
provide enterprise
agility for quick
integration, address
The eMeter SmartStart™ service offering is born from the same sense of
opportunity to roll out Smart Meter deployments faster, while also
providing utilities a final solution that will scale to large volumes of meters.
SmartStart offers utilities a proven blueprint containing eMeter’s nine years
of MDM experience for both business process redesign and back office
technical integration. Furthermore, SmartStart also includes a preconfigured consumer web portal (Energy Engage) that enables utilities and
consumers to work together to drive sustainable energy conservation and
cost reduction.
ever-evolving
It is a complete solution.
reduction.
© 2009 eMeter Corporation
regulatory & IT
changes, and present
the consumer with the
ability to drive
sustainable energy
conservation and cost
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In just three months, eMeter’s experts can deploy an end-to-end, meter-to-cash, scalable solution that
contains all of the essential functionality required of a MDM:
1. Real-time integration to multiple meters
2. Comprehensive Validation, Estimating and Editing (VEE) processing
3. Time of Use (ToU) billing bucketing or framing
4. Integration to Customer Information Management Systems (CIS)
5. Consumer engagement software to present energy usage, costs and carbon footprint to
consumers
The three month deployment is done using EnergyIP – which is proven scalable to process over 20 Million
meters daily, reducing the overall project risk and ensuring that there is no throw away effort involved in
the initial deployment.
Time-to-market is critical
Some decisions just need to be made sooner than later. Whether it be validating meter selection or
infrastructure, verifying your implementation goals or assessing flexibility of integration with your IT
system, it’s critical that the right choice is made so money is not wasted down the road.
The SmartStart program is based on eMeter’s predefined and fully tested configurations which are based on
industry best practices and get you the results you are looking for in as short as 12 weeks.
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eMeter’s methodology is based on many successful implementations and years of experience. eMeter has
identified the bottlenecks and created a streamlined approach to make sure you get the most out of your
investment.
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A foundation for growth
Following the initial deployment, eMeter’s experts can guide customers on
subsequent phases, based on what EnergyIP functionality will generate the
greatest financial return.
SmartStart provides a
Additional three-month deployment cycles might include:
solution to validate
1. Smart Meter deployment planning and logistics management
pre-configured
your meter selection,
2. Additional meter trials or deployments
verify implementation
3. Integration to Outage Management or other infrastructure
goals, assess flexibility
applications
of integration and
4. MV-90 Replacement
deliver an integrated
5. Wholesale / Retail Energy Settlement
consumer portal in as
6. Demand Response Applications
little as 12 weeks.
7. Implementation of new regulatory requirements
Advantages of SmartStart
Keep your Meter Vendors Competitive
No matter which step in the procurement cycle is completed, a SmartStart implementation will create
competition between meter vendors, validating both the metering and network technology claims while
also driving down prices. Meter vendors are compared side-by- side on accuracy and reliability.
A reliance on a meter providers’ MDM or billing front-end provides the meter provider with a proprietary
lock-in that is difficult and expensive to unlock. SmartStart provides an open platform, allowing the
simultaneous test of multiple meters or multiple releases of meters from the same provider.
Iterative and agile deployments allow for increased flexibility, innovation and a phased,
planned approach to SMART METERING
SmartStart’s three-month deployment cycles avoid the problem of continuously changing requirements
and shifting technology. The phased approach allows utilities, regulators and consumers to see
incremental progress on the road to the Smart Grid. As new technologies or applications become available,
they can be quickly tested and implemented without disrupting the status quo.
The Smart Grid is a dynamic marketplace of meters, networking technology, applications, services and
pricing plans. Flexibility is the key to growth in the marketplace. Utilities will need to adopt the speed and
resourcefulness of consumer product and technology companies while continuing to offer the reliability
for which they are known.
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Focus on business transformation while minimizing the impact on
IT Infrastructure
System independence
eMeter understands the business process transformation utilities go
through during a smart meter deployment. SmartStart was developed with
eMeter’s collective knowledge of best practices and a goal of accelerating
time to market. The documented and pre-configured best practices allow
utilities a full implementation of smart metering technologies in three
months with no throw away effort.
and an open
eMeter’s pre-packaged integration to SAP and other CIS packages allows
eMeter’s customers to achieve success faster by focusing on business
process transformation rather than technical integration details.
competitive, and
architecture coupled
with extensive
industry experience
keeps meter vendors
equipped with the
required flexibility to
Summary
eMeter’s SmartStart service offering allows utilities to quickly realize smart
grid success while simultaneously building a future-proof platform.
SmartStart enables:
enable scaling, future
functionality and
adaptation to
regulatory and
technological change.
Procurement executives to implement a multi-source selection for a key
infrastructure project
Marketing executives to manage dynamic innovation on a platform from which they can deploy Smart Grid
applications and avoid a proprietary system that offers innovation only on an incremental schedule
Metering executives to keep a competitive environment to drive down costs from current suppliers and
keep options open for future innovation
Technology executives to implement proven technology that is massively scalable and pre-configured to
integrate into their existing IT infrastructure
An introduction to SmartStart is available by sending an email to sales@emeter.com or by calling
+1.650.227.7770 and asking for a SmartStart representative.
© 2009 eMeter Corporation
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